Thinking outside the boundaries

As little kids, we were always taught to follow certain unspoken rules and stay within some (imaginary) boundary lines. Some things were just expected to be a certain way and we were taught to colour inside the lines, so to speak. For example, the sky is blue and the leaves of a tree are green! Did anyone ever dare to colour their skies red or colour their leaves, say yellow or orange or red? Why not? Have you seen the fall colours here in Michigan, USA? The skies have all sorts of colours like red, blue, violet and leaves have all sorts of colours in addition to green! If nature can colour outside the boundaries, why can’t we?

There’s a song in a Bollywood movie named Baadshah, which jokes about a man being mad because he imagines life outside these so called boundaries; what if the sun was triangle in shape instead of round? what if fish could fly and birds could swim? what if candies grew on trees and apples had to be dug up? To any sane person, this would sound crazy! And anyone who asked these questions would be called “cookie”. Rarely would someone see this as a streak of creativity.

In the business world, we are always expected to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to real world problems that we face on a regular basis. Creativity is required to solve even the most complex problems a company can phase. But creativity is a skill that is rare these days. Only a handful of today’s youth can be really called creative. How will they be if their skills aren’t nurtured right from the start? Why are we not encouraged to think out of the box right from the start? Why are we not encouraged to colour outside the lines for a change? Why are we taught that the sky is blue and leaves are green?

Imagine if we were! I bet more people would pursue creative careers and not chase the corporate madness. More people would run after personal fulfilment than money. People would be braver to chase their dreams and even their dreams would be full of variety!

Its funny how some beautiful multi-coloured leaves can spark such random musings!